Reason.com
The Protect College Sports Act Trades NCAA Chaos for Federal Overreach
Everything in the bipartisan bill to “save” the NCAA, how the law would work, and whether it can pass Congress
Center Right
Washington Examiner
The winners and losers of the Protect College Sports Act
Center Right
In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here. The last time major legislation regulating college athletics was scheduled […]
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Washington Examiner
Bill Pulte as acting DNI a ‘poor choice’: Byron York
Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York argued the new face for the director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, lacks qualifications for the position. “It seems like a pretty poor choice here,” York said on Fox News’s Special Report Tuesday. President Donald Trump tapped Pulte for the position after the previous director, Tulsi Gabbard, resigned […]
Center Right
Raw Story
The only federal agency protecting your vote is about to get gutted by Republicans
Ahead of the November midterm elections, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have demanded Congress pass sweeping voting restrictions, including showing proof of citizenship to register — all in the name of election security.At the same time, the only federal agency dedicated solely to helping states and localities run smooth and secure elections operates on a meager budget. It provides grants for election security far smaller than in the past. And U.S. House Republicans have signaled they want sizable further cuts.The agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, sits at the center of a fight playing out in Congress over how to best ensure secure elections. The debate has thrown into sharp relief a yawning gap between GOP rhetoric over election tampering and actual congressional support for election security efforts.“If my colleagues truly cared about protecting our elections from foreign interference, they’d put the resources behind it,” Rep. Sanford Bishop, a Georgia Democrat, said at a House Appropriations Committee meeting this spring. “Instead, we get empty rhetoric, zero urgency, while putting the right of citizens to vote at risk.”Congressional support of the EAC’s election security grant program has fluctuated over time, but has generally trended downward.Congress has approved election security grant funding at much lower levels than the program’s early years. (Credit: U.S. Election Assistance Commission 2025 Annual Report)Lawmakers approved $380 million in 2018 and $425 million in 2020, along with an additional $400 million in election-related pandemic aid that year.Since then, grant funding has slowed to a trickle. Congress appropriated $75 million in 2022 and again in 2023. That was followed by $55 million in 2024 and $15 million in 2025.This year’s amount, $45 million, is an increase from the previous year — consistent with enhanced needs in an election year — but substantially lower than other recent years and a far cry from the program’s early years.Trump and many GOP lawmakers support the SAVE America Act, which would impose new restrictions on voting. It would require voters to show a photo ID at the polls, as well as require them to bring documents proving their citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, with them when they register to vote.The requirements are needed, the bill’s supporters say, to combat noncitizen voting, an extremely rare occurrence.“The cheating is rampant in our elections,” Trump asserted without evidence in his 2026 State of the Union address. He has called the SAVE America Act “commonsense, country-saving legislation.”The House passed the bill in February but it has floundered in the Senate amid opposition from Democrats and a handful of Republicans. Trump continues to seek new avenues to advance the measure, including urging lawmakers to attach it to housing legislation.President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address on Feb. 24, 2026. During the address, Trump claimed, without evidence, “cheating is rampant” in U.S. elections. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)Cuts to election security agencyThe Trump-led push for voting restrictions has largely ignored concrete election security needs in favor of chasing the phantom specter of noncitizen voting, Democrats and experts on election administration say. The result, they say, has been the possibility of sharp cuts at the EAC.The House Appropriations Committee in April approved a bill that would cut the EAC’s salaries and expenses from $23.86 million to $17 million. It would mark the first time in four years the agency’s budget has dropped below $20 million.The bill would also sharply cut the EAC’s election security grant program from $45 million to $15 million, the same as the last non-election year.Since 2018, the agency has distributed the grants to election officials for technology upgrades, including cybersecurity, physical security improvements at election sites and efforts to combat voter misinformation. Lawmakers created the election security grants in response to foreign interference in the 2016 election.U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, at a Democratic rally in 2022. (Photo by Danielle E. Gaines/Maryland Matters)“Republicans claim falsely that our elections are plagued by fraud and that more needs to be done to secure the vote,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement to States Newsroom.“Yet, they have consistently undermined the security of our elections, including by proposing to cut election-security grants by two-thirds and the Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) overall budget by almost 30% in Fiscal Year 2027,” Hoyer said.
Far Left
The Dispatch
News and Politics - Slate Magazine
How Congress Can Pass a New Voting Rights Act Despite the Supreme Court
Even after Callais, Congress has the power, under the guarantee clause, to stamp out state efforts to decimate Black representation.
Left
NBC News Politics
Kornacki breaks down results for projected winners in New Jersey and Iowa primaries
NBC News’ Steve Kornacki analyzes the results for projected winners in the Iowa and New Jersey primaries as Democrats aim to flip the Senate.
Center Left
BizPac Review
Trump’s acting AG says administration is ditching weaponization fund
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration was dropping the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) anti-weaponization fund. Blanche told the House Appropriations Subcommittee […]
Far Right
Bloomberg Politics
Acting AG Blanche Not Moving Forward With $1.8B Fund | Balance of Power: Late Edition 06/02/2026
"Balance of Power: Late Edition" focuses on the intersection of politics and global business. On today's show, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA), says FHFA chief Bill Pulte is "absolutely not qualified" to serve as acting director of national intelligence and expects the Trump administration to rely more on acting officials to advance the president's agenda without Senate confirmation. Aalok Mehta, Director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says it is unclear what President Trump's executive order establishing voluntary federal reviews of advanced AI models will accomplish. (Source: Bloomberg)
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